Becoming Buddhist

"What does it mean to be a Western Buddhist? For the predominantly Anglo-Australian affiliates of two Western Buddhist centres in Australia, the author proposes an answer to this question, and finds support for it from interviews and her own participant-observation experience. Practitioners' prior experiences of experimentation with spiritual groups and practices and their experiences of participation, practice and self-transformation are examined with respect to their roles in practitioners' appropriation of the Buddhist worldview, and their subsequent commitment to the path to…